


Something Worth Protecting

by Spellfire01



Category: iZombie (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Dinosaurs, Animal Death, But Not Much, Canon-Typical Violence, Dinosaurs, Even creatures before them sometimes bc it's fun, F/M, Fluff and Crack, M/M, Multi, Nothing is serious and everything is good. Mostly., Only crack that's well written, Set in an AU where all dinos live at the same time, That's literally it folks - Freeform, Zombie Dinosaurs, bc you know dinosaurs gotta hunt, not something I ever thought I'd use as a plot device, relationship drama that's pg considering the actual series lmao, this is possibly the most ridiculous and fun thing I've written in so long
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-22
Updated: 2017-12-22
Packaged: 2019-02-18 07:00:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,022
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13094853
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Spellfire01/pseuds/Spellfire01
Summary: So my gf has been down recently so I throught I'd write this to cheer them up. They introduced me to iZombie and I love it, we also both love dinosaurs and talked briefly about what the iZombie characters would be, and so this fic was born.It's more Walking With Dinosaurs meets Ice Age than Dinotopia pffft, I'm also naming the titles of each chapter after a song title from Planet Earth II bc that's my go-to feelgood series.Here's to you Sas, enjoy!





	Something Worth Protecting

**Author's Note:**

> Velociraptors were the size of turkeys.

  
Sunlight filtered through the dense canopy in streams creating pools of light in the early morning fog and patches of colour along the forest floor. Clicking and screeches and haunting calls echoed through the branches and filled the cool air as the morning chorus stirred the sleeping creatures for a new day.

One of these copious creatures was a small Velociraptor named Liv, who lay curled up in a huge nest made of twigs and leaves and comfy feathers. She lay awake but didn't open her eyes, instead she chose to curl up closer against the warm side of the dinosaur sharing the nest beside her.

Peyton, a Gallimimus who Liv had befriended almost half a lifetime ago was her best friend and nestmate, and was - much to Liv's disappointment - ready to get up it seemed. Peyton moved around - careful not to squish the raptor - and lifted herself up onto her long, long, very fast legs which jostled Liv and made her roll further into the nest.

Liv opened her bright green eyes, slit pupils narrow in surprise as she looked up at her tall friend, blinking a few times to adjust to the patch of golden light that had fallen over their nest.

"Morning Liv. Sorry, I didn't mean to wake you but it's time for my morning run", Peyton explained looking down at her fondly, "I'm already warmed up, do you want me to bring some food back for you?"

Liv yawned widely, and rolled over onto her scaled belly, fluffing up her white feathers to keep what little warmth she had absorbed from the sun in. "I'm good thanks, I've gotta see Ravi anyway." She said, standing up stiffly and stretching out her short legs and winged arms, flexing her formidable clawed toes and wiggling her long, feathered tail to shake any knots out of her muscles.

Peyton sighed, head feathers dropping in confusion. "Fine, okay. Are we...still on for that race you owe me at least?" She could never be sure if Liv was going to keep her promises lately, her personality kept changing like the wind over the past year and she didn't know why.

The truth is that Liv had developed quite the taste for brains since she had attended a hunting-party-gone-wrong, resulting in her brown, jade and lime feathers and scales shedding early and being replaced with white ones, and simply loosing her taste for usual meat, or anything really. If she didn't eat any brains, she risked the danger of turning feral for reasons neither Liv nor her clever Archaeopteryx friend, Ravi - one of the only beings who knew about her current condition - understood.

Liv felt guilt pang in her gut for letting Peyton down so often but she smiled a toothy grin and nodded in agreement. "Absolutely! I will so beat you." Damn, this Gallimimus brain was making her more competitive by the day.

Peyton snorted in disbelief. "With those legs?"

Liv opened her mouth to retort but was cut off but a rumbling coming from Peyton's stomach. "Well, I'll catch you later. If you do change your mind and decide you're hungry then I'm just a screech away." Peyton continued.

"Will do, don't get eaten!" Liv bid her goodbye as she zipped away, long tail disappearing behind a huge fallen tree.

Liv stepped out of the nest, shaking her feathers to dislodge some of the small sticks and leaves that had gotten stuck in them overnight as she watched a large dragonfly zoom by overhead.

Tilting her head, she wandered after it, talons flicking up some of the undergrowth as her pace increased to a trot while she followed the insect.

She raced after it over small hills in the earth and puddles, under fallen branches, through dense ferns and the eerie darkness a hollow log created, unseen creepy crawlies and small horrors doing nothing to sway her as she chased after her target. Liv wrinkled her snout at the damp, rotten sent of the wood, and briefly considered snapping up one of the large spiders that could barely be seen through the the crack of light that ran along the top of the log that the dragonfly was flying above, but she decided against it when remembering that her Archaeopteryx friend was deathly scared of them.

The crack in the bark grew larger until it was big enough for her to spring out of the darkness on her strong legs, trying not to close her eyes at the sudden blinding light, and landing with a loud, protesting creak from the wood and moss under her feet.  
  
She raced onwards.

The dragonfly was close, flying a mere few feet in front of her as fast as it's giant wings could beat, zig-zagging along the log in an attempt to trip her up.

She nearly slipped, but adrenaline and her claws catching on the dark bark of the log gained back her balance.

The end of the log was in sight, the insect drawing closer.

Two meters, one meter, a foot-

Liv sprung forwards, snapping the insect up in her strong jaws and clasping it's long tail in her hands, sinking her claws into its armour. The insect was nearly as big as herself, its wings dragging along the ground as she took a few steps forward to try and stamp out the rest of the adrenaline running through her system at the risk of turning feral.

"That was fantastic, Liv!" Came an awed shout from above.

Liv lifted her head despite the weight between her teeth, to see her fellow Archaeopteryx, Ravi, gliding down from a branch high in the canopy, colourful wing-like arms stretched out and glinting all the colours of the rainbow as he drifted through streams of light.

Watching him float down was a wondrous but...almost agonisingly slow process. Holding the dragonfly was staring to make Liv's jaw ache, she had no idea how he was going to drag it back up that tree.

A slight dive and an upwards swoop, and Ravi was landing safely on the forest floor. Well, as safe as a being unadapted to this strange fern-covered earth filled with predators waiting to snap him up could be. He counted his lucky stars that he had offered to help Liv when they first met before she could figure out a way to climb up his tree and eat him too.

Besides the obvious dietary differences, Liv had proven to be an amazing and endlessly interesting friend. She was constantly surprising him, as she had with the juvenile dragonfly she'd caught. With her on the ground with him, he felt mostly safe at least.

"Unless you've miraculously cured yourself, would I be correct in thinking that that's for me?" Ravi asked, walking forwards unsteadily, unused to moving around on such steady ground.

Liv released the body from her mouth and held it out for him to take, which he did gladly, if with a lot of effort, hauling it over his tiny shoulder. She wiped her snout to get rid of the green blood that had oozed out of her mouth, wrinkling her snout in disgust, and stared down at him, tilting her head in a bird-like manner. Whatever birds are. "I wish. Any luck on that cure?"

The Archae sighed defeatedly, glancing down to the ground. "Not yet Liv" he picked himself back up, brown eyes determined. "but I'm not giving up, I will find you a cure some day, believe me."

Liv nodded, looking away and pretending that her short crest of feathers hadn't dropped sadly at the old news.

"How's that Galli brain treating you anyway?" Ravi asked, already making haste towards the huge roosts of the great tree and clambering onto the criss-cross they made over the dead leaves and pine needles at the base.

Liv perked up excitedly at that, tail swaying happily "It's a little exhausting but fun, I can't sit still, I just want to run around and jump and hunt until I crash. I'm not used to having this much energy!"

"Ah. Figures. You gained the traits of one of the fastest creatures in the world that are both predator and prey." Ravi explained, not that he really needed to, with Liv being best friends with a Gallimimus for so long, but it was usually endearing when he rambled about something that interested him.

She watched as Ravi scrambled up the tree far faster than he had drifted down from it, insect and all. He had gotten to the first small branch to take a quick rest break when a voice from behind her made them both freeze instinctively.

"Liiiiiv, what a surprise. Did the good dinosaur give you a checkup before me this time?"

Liv, feathers fluffed defensively and pupils razor sharp, turned around slowly and lifted her head a full 90 degrees to look up into the sly silted blue eyes surrounded by black splotched scales and the much too sharp grin of her nemesis, as Ravi had titled him.

Blaine was a nasty piece of work, but, because of him and his very dangerous friends keeping the rest of the dinosaurs with their shared disease under control with a constant supply of brains, unfortunately, she and Ravi needed him alive.

"What's it to _you_?"

The Utahraptor leaned back, standing to his full height and towering over Liv even more than before. He nearly reached Ravi's branch, it was infuriating.

"Relax, you seem feistier than usual, what kind of brain are you on, Pachycephalosaurus?"

"Maybe it's nothing to do with brains, maybe I'm just tired of having to deal with sneaky, salty, _suspicious_ -"

"A very serious case of rowdy male Gallimimus" Ravi intervened from a third of the way up the tree.

"Huh, that makes sense. I'm on Troodon brain, all this extra intelligence is giving me one hell of a headache. Speaking of Gallies, how's that friend of yours?"

Liv's feathers bristled further, raising her crest and baring her teeth. She replied with just the hint of a snarl "Staying far away from you".

Blaine raised his winged arms, taking a slow step back, despite being higher on the food chain. "That's fair. So uh, Ravi, when were you planning on doing that checkup?"

There was a long pause of silence. Both raptors raised their heads to peer up at the canopy, wondering where he'd gotten to before a tiny head could just be spotted from over a branch. "Not until later, I'm feeding the resident Xianshou Songae that live near my nest. With enough luck I can sneak a few experiments on them if I gain their trust."

"Mammals, they're so dumb." Blaine stated in a patronising tone, making Liv squint at him strangely. These mammals were kind of smart according to Ravi, but Blaine probably had no idea being from outside the redwood forest.

"Well, I know when I'm not wanted. I'll see you nerds later. Liv, it's always a pleasure." The sarcasm in his voice said otherwise as he turned to leave, treading from foot to foot impatiently.

"I can't say the same to you." Liv countered, sneering.

Blaine just showed off that annoying smirk before he darted off into the ferns, sooty stripes and spots blurring in the mere seconds it took for him to disappear once again. Hopefully for a long while but Liv didn't count on it.

After a few seconds staring at the foliage he had vanished into, the light breeze changed into something stronger, ruffling leaves and feathers and branches alike, and a new scent caught her nose. This time it was another mammal, not the small, squirrel-like ones with the long, ringed tails (not that she even knew what a squirrel was, they simply hadn't evolved yet), but one that scurried and jumped along the ground.

Liv grinned. "I'm gonna go Ravi, I'll see you tomorrow. Don't get eaten!"

After a few seconds the message reached her friend and he replied with a frankly unbothered "You too!"

Liv then turned tail and sprinted in the opposite direction of her nemesis.

The chase was on.

**Author's Note:**

> Please comment to let me know what you think to feed my motivation lampreys! Do you want more? Anything you'd like to see next?


End file.
